Train Sim World® 5: Southeastern Highspeed: London St Pancras – Ashford Intl & Faversham Route Add-On

I've spent time across a lot of TSW routes that promise "variety" and then hand you a single unit and a timetable that runs six trains a day. Southeastern Highspeed is the counterexample Dovetail should paste on every other route's Steam page as a reminder of what density looks like. The 89-mile corridor covers two genuinely distinct operating environments: High Speed 1 from St Pancras through Stratford and Ebbsfleet to Ashford International, where the Class 395 Javelin hauls itself up to 140 mph under overhead electrification and TVM-430 cab signalling, and the slower North Kent and Chatham Main Lines from Dartford through Gravesend, Rochester and Chatham to Faversham, running on third-rail under traditional signals. Those two systems demand completely different driver discipline, and switching between them in the same session is the kind of mechanical contrast that keeps things from going stale after hour three. The rolling stock lineup is the strongest argument for picking this route over simpler alternatives. The Class 395 Javelin is the headline act, and the SimuGraph vehicle dynamics model makes the power changeover at Ebbsfleet, where the unit transitions from 25kV AC overhead to DC third rail, feel like an actual operational event rather than a loading screen. The Class 375/9 Electrostar handles the slower Chatham Main Line work with noticeably different handling characteristics, and the Class 465/9 Networker brings a 1990s commuter texture that regulars of the real route will immediately recognise by sound alone. Beyond passenger work, the Class 66 shows up for freight duties with JNA and MFA wagons, which is a welcome gear change when you want something other than station-to-station timing pressure. The timetable is where this route historically separates itself from the TSW pack. Community research has noted up to eight departures per hour in both directions at busier stations like Chatham, and the Dovetail timetable team rebuilt it around a pre-pandemic 2019 working timetable specifically because the 2020 base was too quiet. The result is a route that feels genuinely network-like rather than a museum piece. Journey Mode pushes over 24 hours of structured activities across the route, scenarios cover weather conditions including rain and snow, and the Scenario Planner plus Livery Designer compatibility means the community can keep adding content on top of what ships in the box. The honest caveats: this content is carried forward from earlier TSW iterations under the TSW Compatible label, which means it may not take full advantage of TSW5's newest core features. If you are coming in fresh and hoping for the same visual or systems polish as a ground-up TSW5 build, temper expectations slightly. The route itself is well-regarded and the timetable is dense, but legacy content sometimes shows its age in environmental detail compared to newer additions. A small early Steam sample was around 86% positive, which is respectable for a niche DLC but not a ringing endorsement of perfection. For UK railway enthusiasts, the combination of HS1 high-speed work and classic Southern commuter operations in a single package is genuinely difficult to find elsewhere in the sim space, and that operational breadth is the real reason to own this.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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